Reality Is Not Balanced

I had this letter published yesterday in the Daily Item, in response to this letter that was printed on Saturday:

To the letter writer who recently accused The Daily Item of spouting liberal "propaganda": have you conveniently failed to notice the syndicated columns from right-wing conservatives George Will, Jonah Goldberg and Maggie Gallagher? Or the right-leaning Associated Press articles? Or the front-page stories that frequently show our (Republican) state representatives in a positive light? Now perhaps you can sympathize with many of us who dislike the "conservative propaganda" that appears in this paper.

In particular, the writer complains about a lack of "balance." During the past eight years, too many of us have accepted the idea that "balance" means good journalism. For every story, news outlets feel the need to find someone—regardless of their qualifications or whether they’re right—to provide an opposing or "balanced" viewpoint. The 24-hour cable news networks have fostered this idea, since it’s much easier for them to find two talking heads to debate each other instead of doing real investigative reporting. But facts are not always balanced: sometimes, the facts support one idea and not the other. We should expect our newspapers to provide us with pertinent facts about the news of the day, not to bend over backwards subscribing to this false theory of balance. The last few weeks have not been good for John McCain: he has released untruthful ads and been chastised for them, scandals swirl around his vice presidential pick, and he has demonstrated a lack of understanding of the economy or how to fix it. Failing to report these stories, or "balancing" them with old, questionable conservative talking points about Obama’s past, would do nothing to honestly inform readers.

Jove

As Stephen Colbert famously said, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias...."